Balancing Cognitive and Emotional Culture for a Harmonious Employee Experience with Laila Tarraf, Author of “Strong Like Water”
This episode features an interview with Laila Tarraf, author of Strong Like Water. After losing her parents and husband, Laila learned that compassion was essential in her personal and professional life. Prior to writing her book, Laila served as the Chief People Officer for Allbirds and Peet’s Coffee, and was the Vice President of HR for Walmart.com.
In this episode, Amanda sits down with Laila to discuss leading with love, harmony between company values and felt experience, and psychological safety.
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“It matters more that what your stated values are mirror the felt experience, than what those stated values are. There's a cognitive culture, which is what you say your values are and the stated words. And then there's the emotional culture. It's like, ‘Okay, but how does it feel? How are people talking to me? How are we relating to each other?’ And the greater the dissonance between those two things, that's where you run into issues because then, employees are like, ‘Well, we say it's this, but what I'm seeing is this.’ And that's where trust breaks down. And so it actually hurts you to have these beautifully well-articulated values and the accouterments that come with whatever you think employees are looking for; free lunches or workout rooms, but you're not able to talk to your manager. You're not clear on what your role is. Conflict is swept under the rug, So, it becomes passive aggressive. It's all of those things. It's your felt experience really, that is the true culture and the other things become like window washing and that actually ends up hurting you because then you lose the trust.” – Laila Tarraf
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Episode Timestamps:
*(01:52): Laila’s background
*(05:58): Segment: Story Time
*(06:14): Laila discusses her book Strong Like Water
*(17:17): Laila’s advice for leading with courage and love
*(27:49): Segment: Ripped From The Headlines
*(28:29): Skills leaders need to have to guide employees through challenging times
*(31:24): Segment: Asking For a Friend
*(31:49): What future changes in leadership Laila expects
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Links:
Connect with Laila on LinkedIn